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yeah very nice amp...audiophile upgrades will benefit indeed...great pic as well
cheers
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09-20-2018 10:31 PM
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Twin Reverb + 15" JBL + ES-175 = tone Nirvana!
Congratulations, and play 'em in good health! 
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Congratulations on the new amp 2Born! Since you're a tube guy, what would you recommend for a clean sounding matched quad of EL-84's?
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Congrats 2bop , here is a doppelganger , with my TF
as Vinny says beyond compare, provided you can lift it. ( i could not
so it had to go unfortunately)
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Gorgeous Tal my friend.
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I've had positive results with TAD premium select tubes. You're referring to audio gear?
Originally Posted by helios
https://reverb.com/item/14288944-tub...rc=aw.ds&pla=1
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?Nothing like the sparkly Twin Tone and pushed through a 15" speaker...
Nice going Greg...
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I agree TAD makes great tubes for your amp. Preamp too. I believe best new tubes on the market.
Greg I put a Jan Military NOS 5751 in V2 of my Twin. Really sweet sounding and knocked down the gain to perfection for home use. I never use channel 1. I like a bit of reverb always. Nothing better than old school reverb and Twin reverb is glorious.
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just for clarity sake..tad does not make their own tubes..they source asian made tubes and "test" them according to their standards..then they brand/market those as tad..this is good for audiophiles, but doesn't necessarily transfer to guitar amp use
the last european based tube maker is jj...they make some great tubes...their el84's are great..and their 6l6's are worth looking into as well
of course nos tubes are another option
hammertone, the stock 15" speaker is a jbl inspired eminence made speaker..but the original voice coil wiring (& design) used by jbl makes an exact reproduction cost prohibitive these days
cheers
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get a matched quad set of jj's from antique electronic supply/amplified parts...old school outfit that backs their tubes in case you get a dud Originally Posted by helios
EL84 - JJ Electronics | Antique Electronic Supply
jj el 84's are the closest thing to classic uk vintage mullard el84's that i have ever heard..and i've tried them all over the years!...(being a vox tube amp fan!)
cheers
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TAD goes into all my non-amp stuff. NOS in my amps. I am an old guy and bought NOS supplies years ago.
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I think JJ makes really great power tubes. Their preamp tubes are so-so IMO. They sound a little sterile to me and I have tried them all. I have at least 100 preamp and power tubes in my garage. Believe me I have A/B’d every tube under the sun. I don’t care who makes TAD tubes. I will say their Premium Select series tube is a very high quality tube regardless what it goes in. For preamp I prefer Russian or TAD Chinese but I mostly use all NOS for preamp.
I wouldn’t touch any Chinese made tube unless branded TAD Premium Select.
I have a new Fender Bassman Reissue. All the tubes say Fender Made in USA on them and I have been trying to find out who made these tubes. They are far better than any tube I have seen in a long time. Amp is dead silent even cranked and sounds unbelievable. You can only tell it is on by the jewel light right from the factory. Usually when I buy a Fender amp 1st thing I do is retube and bias it for max clean and quiet.
Also whoever is making Groove Tubes these days, I believe Sovtek is ...... they are pretty darn good too. They were horrible a decade ago when they were Chinese made. JJ, Russian, or TAD are good choices.
The Tube Depot is a outstanding place to buy tubes. They match, balance triodes, and offer a lowest noise tube for a very good price. I always buy balanced triode preamp tubes though only needed for your phase inverter. I also pay the extra $2.00 for lowest noise and microphonics possible. Worth the extra $ IMO.
Amplifiedparts.com is a great source for TAD.
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I don't use TAD's in my audio gear. I use PSVANE, one of the best high end Chinese tubes, for audio. Tubes made in China have come a very long way since what Shuguang was producing in the 90's. If you're not familiar with Psvane tubes, you're truly missing out. But then again, I don't own EL84 based amps Originally Posted by neatomic
For guitar I've had great results with TAD premium select tubes in Twin variant amps. My last twin had jj tubes that were pulled for TAD's. For a guitar amp I tend to stick with something that works well, for folks listen more critically to audio gear than guitar gear...okay, food fight. Tubes for guitar amps or audio amps are like anything else audio. Less filling, tastes great...All sound is subjective. IMHO
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just to clarify, what i meant about audiophile use vs guitar amps, is that the latter has to deal with a whole host of conditions that the average audiophile amp does not...higher voltages, vibration, transport,less than stellar power sources etc etc...
very easy to test a tube as being good...but stick it in a hot running vox ac-30 amp thats being loaded up a flight of stairs in some fly by night club.. from the car trunk on a cold night into a warm club, with wonky electric...those tube tester results no longer mean as much!!
having said that, of course i'd take a tad picked tube over some random asian made tube..they at least give you a fighting chance! hah
said many times before, most important thing when buying new tubes nowadays is finding retailer with good/no hassle return policy...
cheers
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I have never ever got a bad tube from The Tube Depot regardless of brand when you pay the hand selected / spec’d upcharge. I do believe they give a 90 day warranty on anything they sell.
Tubes are like Gibson’s. A dice roll when buying. I still have a couple NOS RCA 12AX7’s. They are like $200 a pop now.
Crazy !!! I paid $10 each for them from a electronics store that was going out of business years ago. Wish I knew then.
I would have bought every one. You can still get a balanced Jan 5751 for around $50 or so. They sound really sweet in V1 or V2 in a Twin.
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I see... Well, for any of you Fender '65 Twin Custom 15 amp users who want the real thing, I have a spare JBL K130 in perfect, original, working order that I'd be happy to send your way in exchange for certain monetary considerations. Originally Posted by neatomic
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Vinny, when I bought the Headstrong Twin it came with JJ 12AX7's. They were ringing like a church chapel. I replaced those with TAD high premium select 7025's. You could have heard a mouse in that church afterwards. Quiet, with a low noise floor, with a great midrange. BTW, I imagine Steve is now playing a certain new L5P with that amp. Originally Posted by vinnyv1k
Don't get me started about how many tubes I could have bought for cheap. Kinda like houses I should have bought way back when. Seattle real estate isn't San Francisco, but it's $400k now for a fixer 50 miles north of Seattle. Nuts.
Will you install it too CMC? Originally Posted by Hammertone
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I love TAD 7025’s ! Made my Tone King Imperial sing like a canary. GREAT tube.
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"Tubes made in China have come a long way..."
Amen to that. You can source tubes from China now that are at least on par with what Svetlana was doing, before it got its name bought out from under it and "Svetlana" tubes started being Reflektor tubes with the Svetlana name applied to them.
At their peak--in the '90s--Svetlana 6550 power tubes were not much inferior to NOS Tung-Sol 6550 tubes (the best ever, IMO). The old Petersburg Svetlana plant continued to produce tubes as "Winged C" but shut down in 2012. Tsk!
Meanwhile, it's a good thing that the Chinese have been getting alignment/assembly/etc., down pat. 20 years ago, a Fender/China preamp tube was something you replaced regularly--as compared with a NOS RCA or Mullard that would last for 10-20 years in the V1 position on most amps. Rectifier tubes? Crap shoot. OTOH, a NOS Mullard GZ34 might last 30 years or more. [FWIW, nobody is yet producing a rectifier tube that is the equal of either a British GZ34 or a North American 5AR4. But, the Sino tube seems more genuine than the others--which aren't true GZ34/5AR4 designs in the first place.]
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There is something wrong with me. I knew it! I've owned 2 vintage single 15 Vibroverbs and a Silverface Twin retrofitted with a 15" JBL D 130. I tried my best, but was never able to dial in a jazz tone I loved with any of them. Always seemed a bit thin to me. All along I figured it was the amps. Now I know it was me. Originally Posted by BigMikeinNJ
Albert
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i have 50 year old heavily used! uk mullards (ecc83/12ax7) that still have some nice tone left in them!!
and yes rectifier tubes are another story..they are basically on /off... like a light bulb...they do their job or not...when vox amp enthusiast brian may saw that mullard gz34's were becoming extinct he sent out his tech squad to buy as many as he could find...nothing comes close!... i've gotten a tad that had the bottle set at huge improper angle in it's base...how that ever got by them, i'll never know!!...i use jj gz34..but don't trust 'em like an original mullard
the eh mullards are a joke by compare
and you still have to replace modern tubes way more regularly than vintage.. ge, mullard, amperex, rca, sylvania...they could last for decades!! ain't happening nowadays
the average modern large production amp is coming with tubes that would all benefit from replacement
cheers
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the jbl alnico d130 is one of the grail speakers of all time..has very full frequency and great efficiency...with certain amps and settings that can translate to bright...but it's not the speakers fault Originally Posted by AKA
wes used the d130 in his standel imperial..
cheers
ps-also could be that your jbl was reconed...the original kits for reconing jbls are long gone...so they can't be reconed 100% like the original
pss- if you wanted a warmer toned 15" speaker you used ev's!!..they were great too..
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